Whatever you are celebrating this December, the holidays are a time to unwind, relax and celebrated holiday traditions.  All of this unwinding, relaxing, and holiday tradition seems to create and endless to-do-list and a multitude of social event.

The holidays are supposed to be a time where you enjoy comfort foods. You tend to relax a bit more than usual and share happiness with your loved ones.  Except… you are usually filled with guilt and shame about what you ate  and your lack of exercise. 

It’s time to stop fearing the yummy foods and lack of exercise we experience during the holidays

Fun Fact: you can stay on track with your health and fitness goals AND be a real person who drinks wine, eats the cookies, and ditches the gym for a long weekend or two.

I am going to share with you ways you can indulge this season  and still stay on track with your health.  Here are 5 tips to help you maintain your healthy routine this holiday season.

1. Be Realistic and Adjust your Routine if necessary

Staying consistent is the foundation of a solid fitness routine, and the holidays are a time to your routine to the test.    If you need to visually plan your holiday “Off Days”  and “On Days”

When you write out anything, it makes it tangible plus you more likely to follow through. So, it helps if you take your calendar out. Figure out the days you have parties or get-togethers to attend during the holiday season.  Mark these days as your “off days.” On these days, you will most likely workout less and stray a bit off of your diet. All other days will be considered your “on days.” On these days, you will do your best to stay on track with your health journey when it comes to your eating and exercise routine.

Try to get your workout in early, this way if something comes up after work or in life, you won’t have to feel guilty about skipping your sweat session. If you aren’t a morning person, you can try to squeeze in a workout on your lunch break – I’ve done this many times. After all, a short workout is better than no workout at all!

There will be random events + situations that come up on your “on days” where you will stray from your healthy habits a bit. Live your life. Don’t drive yourself nuts!

2. Don’t arrive on an empty stomach

Don’t skip breakfast or lunch just so you can splurge at a holiday event.  Instead have a lean and protein rich breakfast and lunch, to help manage your hunger before the event.  Chance are you will be more likely to meet your fat and carb requirements but fall short on protein during holiday event. Plus, if you go into the event on an empty stomach, it will be hard to avoid being ravenous and over eating.

3. Focus on the people, not on the food

That’s what parties during the holidays are all about anyways, right? Enjoy the time you have with your family and friends, the conversations, and the time of year.

4. M-o-d-e-r-a-t-i-o-n

Adopt a balanced overall mindset.  I believe that people who are successful at maintaining a healthy lifestyle all have a mindset of balance. Major restrictions will almost always stress you out , and you will likely just end up with you feeling like you failed yourself.

Don’t go into this holiday season vowing to only eat the veggie platter, some turkey, salad, and water.  Let’s be real. When you enter a holiday this way, you either end up:

• being the cranky scrooge at the party that nobody wants to be around or
• give up  and seriously overeat to the point of a bad stomach ache (followed by guilt).

If you try to live your healthy lifestyle normally according to the 80/20 rule, maybe adjust it to 70/30 or even 60/40 for a few weeks. You can  and  WILL be able to get back to where you were, while maintaining your sanity.

Don’t waste your indulgences on the things you don’t really love, save them for the things you DO! The holidays only come around once a year, have one of grandma’s famous holiday cookies, or your moms butter tarts, but avoid mindlessly snacking on foods that aren’t special to this time of year. Love egg-nog? Then have some!!!

5. Get lots of sleep

The multitude of social events and endless to-do-lists can make this one challenging. But let’s not forget we are in Cold and Flu season, and nobody wants to be sick over the holidays.

It’s important to find balance in the holiday and your goals so you end the night with a “Yeees!!—I had the best time and enjoyed every bite of my food” rather than punishing yourself with unnecessary food guilt. At the end of the day, you deserve to treat yourself and have a good time. And you don’t have to sacrifice your goals to do that.

True results come from the effort you put in day-to-day, throughout the year.  One holiday or meal is not going to make or break you, the consistency you have day-to-day will yield true results.  Remember the holiday season is mean to be enjoyed!